— The PM quietly won cabinet agreement to end free movement of labor from the European Union, reports our Tom McTague. Bringing this script to the summit, any lingering doubts in Brussels that Britain is preparing for a hard Brexit are likely to be extinguished.

— The City of London Corp proposed a post-Brexit visa for EU workers. Under the U.K.’s current visa regime, three-quarters of the EU workforce in Britain would not meet the necessary requirements to continue working there.

— The Scottish government published its draft bill on a second independence referendum. While the document sets out the rules of the campaign, the counting of votes and other technical details, its publication does not guarantee a referendum will be held.

INSIGHT

For Theresa May, Britain’s exit from the European Union is principally a question of trade. How the U.K. arranges its immigration system after Brexit is not anyone else’s business.

Whether the U.K. prime minister likes it or not, that is not how it is seen in Europe.

European leaders were taken aback by May’s strident tone at the Conservative Party conference earlier this month when she set out her red line on immigration.

Calmer heads accept that Britain can, if it chooses, leave the European Union and erect border controls. But it is equally in no doubt — in Brussels at least — that Europe will extract a price on migration in return for access to its markets.

Canada’s free trade deal — held up by Conservative Euroskeptics as a model for a future U.K.-EU relationship — is a case in point.

As May stands up to address European leaders over dinner tonight, the deal with Ottawa is being delayed, in part, by Romanian and Bulgarian demands for equal immigration rights for its citizens wanting to work in Canada.

Canada’s claim that this has nothing to do with the trade deal but will be handled by another arm of the government has fallen on deaf ears in Bucharest. Romania’s national parliament — along with every other of Europe’s 38 national and regional legislatures — has a veto over the trade deal and is determined to extract its pound of flesh.

In Britain’s case, Eastern European governments, particularly Poland, are highly unlikely to allow a trade deal to be finalized without trying to win concessions on its workers’ rights.

Hardliners in Britain insist they are not arguing for an end to migration from Europe, but for control over numbers to reside in Westminster, as it does with Ottawa.

But there is also a realization in London that a good deal for both sides requires far more goodwill than currently exists. This explains May’s pitch to EU leaders tonight. She will say: don’t think of Britain’s exit as bad for Europe, but — managed correctly — as a blessing for both sides.

That is not the starting point in many European capitals. May is going to need to learn to read her European counterparts and she will need to master this quickly.

— Labour MP Hilary Benn will chair the House of Commons’ committee that will scrutinize the government’s Brexit department. He beat fellow Labour MP Kate Hoey, a prominent Leave campaigner, in a secret ballot vote in parliament: 330 MPs voted for Benn and 209 for Hoey.

— David Cameron’s former special adviser Daniel Korski took POLITICO behind the scenes of the failed Remain campaign in fascinating, 8,000-word detail. “As tempting as it might be to attribute the U.K.’s decision to ‘Leave’ to just one cause — frustration with immigration, the reluctance of EU leaders to offer a better deal, broad disaffection with globalization and the post-crash recovery — the truth is far more complex. Real life cannot be compressed into a zip file.”

— Iceland has said it will make getting post-Brexit U.K. into the European Free Trade Association a priority. Foreign Minister Lilja Alfredsdottir noted that the U.K. was Iceland’s largest trading partner. “Eleven percent of our exports and imports go to this market.”

— Poles in the U.K. are considering moving to Ireland after the uncertainty and hostility they’ve faced following the referendum, according to the Guardian. Other apparent draws: Ireland’s economic growth, the stability of the euro and 1990s Polish pop song “Kocham cię jak Irlandię” (“I love you like Ireland.”)

— Farmers are being urged to use the boost in incomes caused by the weaker sterling to prepare for life after Brexit. “The prospect of a more difficult trading environment and less direct support is the sort of backdrop farmers should be thinking about as they plan their businesses,” said Peter Kendall, chairman of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.

— The British TV ad market is bracing for a slump: Companies have cut more than £400 million from marketing budgets over the likelihood of a hard Brexit. The potential drop will be the biggest since 2009’s 11 percent decline after the global financial crisis.

— What should private equity firms buy in Britain? Industrial distribution, private medical clinics and laboratories, aerospace manufacturing, and employment and recruitment services, according to a new report from the management consultancy BCG. The reason: These sectors “depend heavily on EU trade, workforces or regulation.”